Late Tuesday night, a squad of FEMA senior internment specialists from Washington secretly departed Andrews Air Force base bound for the wildfire-razed countryside of northern California, where the largest fire in the state’s history has already claimed a dozen lives, displaced thousands, and singed over 283,000 acres of land. Our source, a high-ranking FEMA agent speaking under condition of anonymity, said the eight-man death squad left D.C. with orders to train regional supervisors on proper interrogation and internment tactics.

The FEMA team, he added, arrived on Wednesday near Redding, CA and began teaching local Federal Emergency Management Agency employees how to trick, wheedle, and cajole indigent Californians into believing the government aims to help in times of crisis. The reality, however, is quite the opposite.

“The agents have been given autonomous power and a license, if needed, to kill,” our source said. “They project themselves as benevolent overlords, showing up with food, resources, shelter, and other amenities, which the impovrished graciously accept. Once FEMA hooks them in and has them wanting more, they reel them in. People are told ‘if you want more, you need to come with us’ and then herded onto FEMA cattle cars and taken to the nearest FEMA camp. Those who refuse are intimidated and often find themselves staring down the barrel of an AR-15.”

Agents, he said, were given explicit instructions: lure unsuspecting victims into FEMA’s open arms. Currently, there are twenty-three aid stations and rescue centers near the perimeter of the Carr wildfires. FEMA agents will systematically commandeer those locations and tell rescue workers that harboring victims, many of whom could be fellons or illegal immigrants, is a clear violation on the Patriot Act, and that culpable persons would be subject to detainment and arrest without the benefit of jurisprudence.

“Most people at the rescue stations don’t really know the law, so they just leave fearing they’ll be imprisoned,” our source said.

Plain clothed FEMA agents or even those dressed as Red Cross volunteers then commandeer the locations and offer wayward souls a warm bowl of rancid soup and some blankets to sleep on. Once the building is filled to capacity, FEMA locks the doors and armed agents prevent anyone from leaving, ostensibly for their own safety. After a night’s sleep of being lulled into a false sense of security, their cellphones and digital media are confiscated as they are herded like cattle aboard sweltering busses and taken to FEMA camps.

The FEMA security squads, he said, have been granted broad discretionary powers and immunity against prosecution. In time of natural or manmade disasters, FEMA is the ultimate authority.

“FEMA can arrest anyone, at any time, for any reason or for no reason. Even local law enforcement bends to FEMA’s will. If some chivalrous cop tries to side with the public, he risks being interned or killed himself. That’s how much power FEMA has. And agents are under tremendous pressure to meet goals,” our source said.

FEMA internment specialists are obligated to meet quotas, much the way a State Trooper is expected to issue a given number of speeding citations each month. In FEMA, however, an agent’s worth is based on how many people per crisis he can willingly or forcibly convince to visit the nearest FEMA camp.

“Like what we did during Hurricane Harvey and in Hawaii, this will just be another beta test in advance of an eventual declaration of Martial Law,” our source said.